Well, people often think of software development life cycle i.e the process from gathering requirement to test and release and maintenance. Very rare that people think of what will happen when a software product release successfully. Of course, there will continue bigger sale of the software, and a lot of work relating to customer support and services will be born. But will these things last forever? No way! But then, there comes bigger question - when will the successful period end? How can a manager foresee the change? What should he do to overcome and achieve continuing success?
That is the case in IONA's Orbix system. Orbix became successful thanks to its latest technology in distributed programming. Its success demanded a boom in labor resource for work success maintenance and consultancy and customer services. The Orbix has become a 'cash cow' for IONA.
But then, the cost and the complexity of managing the large numbers of people involved in Orbix has made the cost bigger and bigger. The revenues diminished.
This triggers a lot of questions. Was it happen with Window 95? Window ME? Will it happen with Mac OSX? I want to hear more about stories of successful software become obsolete and be replaced by newer, better alternatives. Unfortunately, searching for answers of these questions does not lead anywhere. This question should be raised in class.
One more thing, to quote the case: "the cost and the complexity of managing the large numbers of people involved in Orbix has reached a breaking point". How to know that the complexity has reached the breaking point? Answering this question is a very important lesson for every product manager.
No comments:
Post a Comment